Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Note on Spelling Introduction 1. Overview of the Genre 2. The Human Body: Humors, Digestion, and the Physiology of Nutrition 3. Food: Quality, Substance, and Virtues 4. External Factors 5. Food and the Individual 6. Food and Class 7. Food and Nation 8. Medicine and Cuisine Postscript: The End of a Genre and Its Legacy Bibliography Index

About the Author

Ken Albala is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of the Pacific.

Reviews

"Albala 's engaging tour through the host of Renaissance dietary theories reminds us that our preoccupations with food and susceptibility to cranky advice about nutrition are nothing new. This is superior scholarship delivered with a light touch."-Rachel Laudan, author of The Food of Paradise: Exploring Hawaii's Culinary Heritage; "This stimulating work is an important contribution to social and especially medical-dietetic history. Albala is the first to explore in detail the role of dietetic literature in the development of the European nation state. His book is a pleasure to read."-Melitta Weiss Adamson, editor of Food in the Middle Ages